Happy New Year!!

I haven't been around much but am back after a vacation with family to the most remote and wet part of NZ, beautiful Fiordland (yes we spell it wrong here). It was a lot of driving (for a NZer) and we stayed in a rented house there. Lots of hiking, biking and afternoon napping. I feel very privileged to be able to on a break away given the state of Covid in most places. The capsule was pretty casual - and the most worn pieces were my raincoat, my jeans and my black and white long sleeve tee. I did two freezing dips in the icy lake though.

Anyway here is the state of play for me.

In 2020 I had the goals of expanding and better defining my work capsule, and doing more second hand shopping. I achieved the first and am especially happy with my work wardrobe, but not the second with only 5 second hand pieces added during the year. Inspired by Jenn I spent time defining my essentials and now have a comprehensive list. What this means if something is wearing out, whether I will choose to replace or not. I suspect this will be a moving target though. I also have lots of capsules on the Finds feature (both colours and patterns and season). I think of an all year wardrobe with summer and winter pieces slotting in.

I also came up with (with help from the forum) the Grown Up Charlies Angel moniker which is aspirational of course. I still aim for relaxed bold elegant style... (also aspirational).

I added 35 pieces (most are shown in finds below)

• 6 gear/sports
• 14 essential replacements
• 5 new essentials
• 10 statements - not essentials.

I shopped a bit more online than usual, but had some good in person shopping experiences as well especially in January and February.

With one exception I love and am wearing all my additions (the hat has only been worn twice).

I edited out 22 pieces in the year. The reasons for editing were:

• 7 - Worn out
• 6 - Over it (used to wear a lot but no longer)
• 3 - Fit issues/unflattering
• 3 - Just wrong/poor choices
• 2 - Stained
• 1 - Moved to lounge/gardening

These pieces were mostly about three years old but some were older and some only one year old.

My main wardrobe sits around 94 pieces - the classification is below. I haven't included gear in this or scarves or sunglasses or evening clutch bags (mostly vintage).

Wardrobe Count

Pants and skirts  17
Coats and jackets 13
Dresses and jumpsuits 15
Tops blouses and tees 27
Shoes 17
Day bags 5
Total          94

Plus
SunGlasses  3
Scarves 15
Gear   40
Clutches  5
Total         63

Overall        157

As we start 2021 I have chosen my colour as green, and my word as stretch. These mostly relate to non clothing goals and intentions...

I have a shopping list of 12 pieces for the year - I know I will buy more than this but I have a few areas that I need to upgrade. Initially this is mostly outdoor sports gear- I plan to cycle more and need additional cycling pants and a warm top, and I also would like some trail shoes.

I have also identified a few pieces that are either on the brink of wearing out, or that I am "over" but am not acting on them in a rush.

This is long and so I will wrap up now. If anyone wants to see my list of essentials I am happy to provide this.

Thanks Angie, Greg and Inge for this lovely, positive, helpful and intelligent forum. It was much appreciated during a turbulent 2020.

(I added a few pics from the trip, mostly scenery. I won't be able to repeat the first hairstyle sorry, it was a one off.